RIP DESERT BOOT INVENTOR

Earlier this week Nathan Clark, great-grandson of the founder of English shoe company Clark’s and inventor of the desert boot in 1947, died recently at the age of 94. Last week The Guardian ran this fine tribute.

As most men own khaki pants originated by US Army, Nathan saw another clothing trend brought home from the war to be worn as peacetime leisurewear.

FROM HIS OBITUARY: However, on leaving university in 1937 Nathan responded to the Quaker traditions of the Clark family, and volunteered to drive in a Republican ambulance unit in the Spanish civil war for two years. There, he noticed that peasant espadrilles with jute rope soles were more easily replaceable, and comfortable, than official ammunition boots. He was briefly a civilian, then joined the Royal Army Service Corps as an officer during the second world war.

Clark was sent to Burma in 1941, before the declaration of war on Japan, to help supply Chinese nationalist forces via the Burma road. After the Japanese invaded Burma, supplies for China were instead airlifted from Assam in India. Clark served until the end of the war in an improvised force with Indian army soldiers, and allied officers drafted eastwards after the North Africa campaigns. The Indians favoured Pashtun chaplis (sandals) that came from the North-West Frontier provinces, robust, masculine footwear airily open at toe and heel, but double-wrapped across the foot for protection. The desert veterans affected cravats and scarves offduty, plus rough suede ankle boots with minimal lacing and crepe rubber soles.

The originals of these had been commissioned from cobblers in Cairo's Khan el-Khalili souk by South Africans among the desert army, to replace their worn-out veldtschoen, the old voortrekker wear – boots sewn from soft, flexible hides, with a reliable grip yet cushioned tread on sand or rocks; they shared aspects of construction with the chukka boots worn for polo in Egypt and India. Back in Britain, a gentleman avoided suede on his feet – something sly about it, strictly for lounge lizards and worse – but up at the sharp end it was acceptable. Clark, intrigued, scissored newspaper patterns of the pieces for sandal and boot while in his barracks. He had understood what few did, that the fighting kit of the allies – sweat shirts, field jackets and desert boots – could become peacetime leisurewear.

Thank you to the Guardian.co.uk for publishing Nathan's obituary.